Method and System for Determining Total Cost of Ownership

1. A computing system for determining a cost of ownership of at least one asset, the system obtaining charge and asset information from at least one external system over a network, the system comprising: a computer memory storing instructions including an extract, transform and load engine, a charge processing engine, a data quality engine, a charge processing engine, and an analytics, reporting, and data visualization engine; and at least one computer processor executing the stored instructions to perform steps including: importing data using the extract, transform and load engine, the data including charge and asset information from the at least one external system, validating the imported data using the data quality engine, processing the data with the charge processing engine by matching at least one charge to at least one asset, and performing data analytics and reporting on the total cost of ownership of the at least one asset by presenting a user interface with the analytics, reporting and data visualization engine.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the Extract, Transform and Load Engine comprises at least one of a file upload utility and a web services interface.

3. The system of claim 1 , wherein the extract, transform and load engine comprises at least one of an Open Database Connectivity interface, a Java Database Connectivity interface, a Relational Database Management System interface, a Hadoop/Hadoop Data File System interface, a Configuration Management System interface and an IT Asset Management System interface.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the extract, transform and load engine comprises a user interface for configuring the extract, transform and load engine.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the extract, transform and load engine comprises at least one of a data archiving processor to dynamically move data to archive tables, a job scheduler to manage jobs, schedules and statuses and a data metric processor for gathering data metrics.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data quality engine comprises a data learning module to learn and improve recommendation of the data.

7. The system of claim 1 , wherein the data quality engine comprises a job failure management module to identify and mark data sets as unfit for import.

8. The system of claim 1 , wherein the analytics, reporting and data visualization engine further comprises at least one of a standard report, a customized report, an ad-hoc report and an interface for a third party reporting solution.

9. The system of claim 1 , wherein the analytics, reporting and data visualization engine further comprises a portal component to visualize and analyze data.

10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising processing the imported data by traversing an asset hierarchy, the asset hierarchy having multiple levels of assets spanning from a bottom level to a top level, wherein traversing the asset hierarchy includes matching a received charge with a highest possible asset level based on the imported data and allocating the charge to the highest asset level reached.

11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising processing the imported data by traversing an asset hierarchy, the asset hierarchy having multiple levels of assets spanning from a top level to a bottom level, wherein traversing the asset hierarchy includes matching a received charge with a lowest possible asset level based on the imported data and allocating the charge to the lowest asset level reached.

12. The method of claim 10 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are IT assets.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are IT assets.

14. The method of claim 10 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are business assets.

15. The method of claim 11 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are business assets.

16. A computer-implemented method for determining the cost of ownership of at least one asset, the method obtaining charge and asset information from at least one external system over a network, the method comprising: storing instructions in at least one computer memory, the instructions including an extract, transform and load engine, a charge processing engine, a data quality engine, a charge processing engine, and an analytics, reporting, and data visualization engine; and implementing a computer processor for accessing the stored instructions in the computer and executing the instructions to performs steps including: importing data using the extract, transform and load engine, the data including charge and asset information from the at least one external system, validating the imported data using the data quality engine, and processing the data with the charge processing engine by matching at least one charge to at least one asset.

17. The method of claim 16 , wherein bringing data from disparate sources comprises providing at least one of a file upload utility and a web services interface.

18. The method of claim 16 , wherein bringing data from disparate sources comprises providing at least one of an Open Database Connectivity interface, a Java Database Connectivity interface, a Relational Database Management System interface, a Hadoop/Hadoop Data File System interface, a Configuration Management System interface and an IT Asset Management System interface.

19. The method of claim 16 , wherein bringing data from disparate sources comprises providing a user interface for configuring the extract, transform and load engine.

20. The method of claim 19 , wherein the user interface is web based and comprises at least one of a portal component, an applet and a shuttle control.

21. The method of claim 16 , wherein bringing data from disparate sources comprises at least one of a data archiving processor to dynamically move data to archive tables, a job scheduler to manage jobs, schedules and statuses and a data metric processor for gathering data metrics.

22. The method of claim 16 , wherein validating the data comprises learning and improving recommendation of the data.

23. The method of claim 16 , wherein validating the data comprises providing a job failure management module to identify and mark data sets as unfit for import.

24. The method of claim 16 further comprising performing data analytics and reporting on the total cost of ownership of the at least one asset by presenting a user interface with the analytics, reporting and data visualization engine.

25. The method of claim 24 , wherein performing data analytics and reporting on the total cost of ownership comprises providing at least one of a standard report, a customized report, an ad-hoc report and an interface for a third party reporting solution.

26. The method of claim 24 , wherein performing the data analytics and reporting on the total cost of ownership comprises providing a portal component to visualize and analyze data.

27. The method of claim 16 , further comprising processing the imported data by traversing an asset hierarchy, the asset hierarchy having multiple levels of assets spanning from a bottom level to a top level, wherein traversing the asset hierarchy includes matching a received charge with a highest possible asset level based on the imported data and allocating the charge to the highest asset level reached.

28. The method of claim 16 , further comprising processing the imported data by traversing an asset hierarchy, the asset hierarchy having multiple levels of assets spanning from a top level to a bottom level, wherein traversing the asset hierarchy includes matching a received charge with a lowest possible asset level based on the imported data and allocating the charge to the lowest asset level reached.

29. The method of claim 27 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are IT assets.

30. The method of claim 28 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are IT assets.

31. The method of claim 27 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are business assets.

32. The method of claim 28 , wherein the assets in the asset hierarchy are business assets.

33. A computing system for determining a cost of ownership of at least one asset, the system obtaining charge and asset information from at least one external system over a network, the system comprising: a computer memory storing instructions including an extract, transform and load engine, a charge processing engine, a data quality engine, a charge processing engine, and an analytics, reporting, and data visualization engine; and at least one computer processor executing the stored instructions to perform steps including: importing data using the extract, transform and load engine, the data including charge and asset information from the at least one external system, the extract, transform and load engine including data import tools including a file upload utility, a web services interface, an Open Database Connectivity interface, a Java Database Connectivity interface, a Relational Database Management System interface, a Hadoop/Hadoop Data File System interface, a Configuration Management System interface and an IT Asset Management System interface, a user interface for configuring the extract, transform and load engine, a data archiving processor to dynamically move the data to at least one archive table, a job scheduler to manage jobs, schedules and statuses, and a data metric processor for gathering data metrics, validating the imported data using the data quality engine, the data quality engine including a data learning module to identify and mark data sets as unfit for import, processing the data with the charge processing engine by matching at least one charge to at least one asset, the charge processing including storing an asset hierarchy, the asset hierarchy having multiple levels of assets arranged in a predetermined manner, processing the imported data by traversing the asset hierarchy, and allocating the charge to the asset, and performing data analytics and reporting on the total cost of ownership of the at least one asset by presenting a user interface with the analytics, reporting and data visualization engine, the analytics, reporting and data visualization engine including a reporting module comprising of at least one of a standard report, a customized report, an ad hoc report and an interface for third party reporting solution, and a portal component to visualize and analyze the data.